An eagle-eyed reader has directed our attention to an interesting tweet published by Imran Shahid, an HTC regional sales manager handling Verizon accounts. According to Shahid, HTC’s ThunderBolt handset will launch on Verizon Wireless next Thursday, March 17th. The aforementioned timeline predates our prognostication by a mere four days, but we’re sure that won’t upset you all that much. We’ve reached out to HTC and will update this post with any comment it provides.

UPDATE: That didn’t take long. Mr. Shahid has removed the tweet from his account. More →

Reuters is reporting that former Apple global supply chain manager, Paul Devine, has pled guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in a San Jose, CA federal court. Mr. Devine, who worked for Apple from 2005 to 2010, was accused of taking kickbacks and “using his position to pass confidential information to help suppliers negotiate favorable contracts with Apple.” As part of his plea, Devine forfeits $2.28 million in cash and property. “Mr. Devine is a good man who made a mistake, and now he’s trying to make amends,” said his attorney. Sentencing is set for Monday, June 6th, when Devine will face a maximum sentence of twenty years. A civil lawsuit is also pending.

Although it has been available in a beta version for the past several weeks, BlackBerry Desktop Manager 2.0 for Mac had yet to be given an official release date by maker Research In Motion… that is, until today. RIM has made version 2.0 of its desktop suite for Mac official. The update brings with it Wi-Fi music syncing, a new device switch wizard, and the ability to import and sync both photos and videos with iPhoto and iTunes. Desktop Manager 2.0 clocks in at just north of 40MB and is available as we type. Hit the read link to download the new goodies. More →

To be honest, we haven’t heard all that much complaining from DROID X users running Android 2.2, but apparently Motorola has. In a forum post, Motorola listed several issues being experienced and reported by DROID X users who have upgraded their devices to Android 2.2. The list includes: stuck on Motorola logo after boot, random rebooting, Wi-Fi connection stability, Battery Manager “Force Close” error, media not playing, and music files cutting out early. Hit the jump for the full explanation and let us know if you’re seeing any of these issues. More →

Benjamin Vigier is a bit of a near field communication (NFC) pioneer. Since 2004, he has worked with the likes of Bouygues Telecom, Sandisk, and mFoundry. He is also responsible for, “the development of mobile wallet applications for two top US mobile network operators and an NFC wallet application for a top three US bank.” So when U.S. electronics company Apple, Inc. decided to hire him as their “commerce product manager,” the rumors began a flyin’. Unsurprisingly, Vigier and Apple both declined to comment on the hiring, but a look at some of the recent NFC related patent filings by Apple have given the rumors legs. NFC World reports the following NFC related patent filings for Apple int he last few months:

An NFC-based mobile payments service that lets consumers make payments to merchants and other consumers via a credit or debit card, directly from their bank account or using credit stored in their iTunes account.

The ‘iPay, iBuy and iCoupons’ patents, describing a comprehensive mobile payments, mobile commerce and mobile marketing business based around an NFC-enabled iPhone.

Products+, an NFC-based product marketing and promotions application.

An airline ticketing and boarding pass application that describes an unmanned, automated airport ticketing and baggage counter kiosk and introduces the concept of an automated security checking process where users of the iTravel app could process themselves through the security clearance system and check themselves in at the boarding gate.

The Grab & Go patent, designed to make it easy for customers to transfer files between devices such as the Mac, iPhone and Apple TV.

An NFC-enabled iPod, games controller, TV and iPhone.

An NFC-based concert, entertainment and sports venue ticketing application that includes exclusive bonus features for users of Apple’s service.

Maybe someone will leave an NFC enabled iPhone in a bar? Until then… let the rumors continue. More →

Today, Google announced planned improvements to the contacts manager located in its Gmail web-based email client. Google touts the Contacts feature now, “works more like the rest of Gmail” and that they incorporated a ton of user feedback. Improvements include:

Keyboard shortcuts (go to Contacts and hit “?” for the full list)

Sort by last name (look under “More actions”)

Custom labels for phone numbers and other fields

The ability to undo changes you’ve just made

Automatic saving

Structured name fields, so you can adjust titles, suffixes, and other name components

A bigger, more prominent notes field

The new layout looks much cleaner and provides more functionality with fewer clicks of the mouse. Google also mentioned that they, “made it easier to get to Contacts and Tasks,” and that you’ll see links to the two in the upper left hand corner of your screen right under the Gmail logo. Hit the read link for the official Google post. Anyone seeing these updates yet? More →

What is inside the mysterious displays that have been showing up at AT&T retail locations around the country? Well, we don’t know exactly… but we’ve been given a little more information that we thought we would share. According to one of our sources, inside the clandestine display is a small TV and rack where an unknown piece of hardware will sit. Today, managers began receiving metal display boxes with three-digit pad locks on them, the outside of the box reads: “Hero Fixture Launch Kit.” It also reads, “Top Secret: Store Manager Only.” All our source knows about the contents of the mysterious box (pictured above) is that, “it is something brand new that has never been released before.” What do you think it is? Perhaps a BlackBerry Torch 9800? Maybe something else? Drop your hypothesis in the comments.